1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to video processing and communication systems, and, more particularly, to processing of video in a layered video processing and playback system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Video equipment broadcasts television programs in video streams for playback on a television. Often, there is a lot of action captured in the video that is broadcast and a user has trouble following the actions. Sometimes, a user misses the main activity due to other video movements that might be distracting to a user.
Video layers are broadcast in motion pictures expert group (MPEG 4) encoders. Different objects and the background in a scene are segmented to create different video layers. The background, however, is not full since there is no way to recreate that part of the background, which the objects occupied before in a video sequence. Therefore, the user cannot move the objects to new positions in a scene, if he wants to create new effects.
Spotlights are used widely in theaters, movie shooting, ballet programs, etc. With few exceptions, special effects are presently created off-line using software designed for that purpose.
Video editing of a program and introduction of special effects are time consuming and not capable of being applied in real time.